Digital Revenant: Gods Among Men
by writing.with.the.wind
Summary: With Lucemon sealed, a timid peace, however temporary, has fallen over the digital world. But hate breeds hate, and a species of long-oppressed digimon decide to take matters into their own hands. The line between good and evil is beginning to blur, and when the new generation of Legendary Warriors enter the digital world, they may just be on the wrong side of it.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello everyone! It has been quite awhile since I have been on this website. I have a few multi-chap Digimon fanfic ideas, and I will try to get them all up in the coming months. I will try to update as much as I can, though the schedule will most likely be very irregular. If there are any grammatical errors, please do not hesitate to point them out to me and I will get them fixed as soon as I can!**

 **This story in particular will be a little closer to the Frontier canon that we all know and love. It is not really AU, as it takes place a few centuries after the Frontier gang defeated Lucemon. It is set in that version of the digital world and that canon, though I will deviate slightly from the anime canon. My version of the Legendary Warriors is a little different to better suit my story, and my version of the digital world is also slightly different as well. Digivolution patterns will be different, as well as the digimon within each digivolution line. There are also only 8 Warriors in my version, because I think 10 may be a little hard for readers to keep track of. Anyway, not much will be revealed in the first few chapters. The story is kept intentionally vague at the beginning and more will be revealed as the story progresses.**

 **The idea of Digimon families or DigiMemories will also play a major part in this story whereas it was nonexistent in the Frontier world. They will be connected to the elements of each Spirit, and will come to be symbolic of the spirits as well as a connection between the Legendary Warriors and the digimon of that respective family. This idea will be further explained later in the story.**

 **I know this probably seems kind of confusing, but I want readers to have a little bit of background information before diving in. This story is rated T for now, as I'm not sure how dark I want to get with it yet and I want to play it safe. The rating may change as time goes on.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Digimon or Digimon Frontier. All canon portions of the story belong to their respectful owners. I own none of the digimon mentioned, just my own characters and my own plot.**

* * *

 **The Legendary Warriors.**

 **Who are they, really?**

 **An old myth?**

 **A legend?**

 **A folktale told to put young digimon to sleep?**

 **Nobody knows.**

 **The land has slumbered in a lasting piece for centuries after the previous heroes of lore defeated Lucemon, but at long last, discontent grows. Rebellion is stirring in all regions of the digital world, and someone must quell the chaos before it takes over. A voice calls out to eight individuals from Earth, leading them to the adventure of their lives.**

 **The source of the rebellion is the Metal Empire, the Machine digimon species who have been oppressed for a long period of time as a mutant species and a product of human waste. The other wild digimon believed that they were too smart, forcing them to live isolated and ashamed. Now, the Metal Empire vows revenge. They organized into a true empire and began their crusade throughout the Digital World, terrorizing those who have wronged them. The Celestials race against the clock to assemble a new set of humans to wield the spirits and become the new Legendary Warriors to put a stop to the destruction and bring peace back to the digital world.**

 **At least, that's what they tell the Warriors.**

* * *

The rain pattered onto the grey cement in small clusters. Umbrellas dotted the sidewalk, turning the city into a dreary tableau. Feet pounded the pavement as a girl, no older than sixteen, threaded her way through the crowd, nothing protecting her hair from the pouring rain save for a thin hood. Older, larger men and women jostled her from side to side as she struggled to find a dry spot under the darkened clouds. Soon, she relaxed her stride, glancing around for a sign of shelter. Most of the shops had closed for the day, but her gaze zeroed in on an old antique store. It was an unassuming setup, with its windows cracked and the door practically falling off of its hinges. If the girl had been in any other situation, she would have not given the store a second look. However, at that moment in time, it appeared to be her only salvation.

A bell clanged softly as she entered the shop. The only source of light in the small room was a set of candles scattered throughout the shelves. Strangely shaped knick knacks and trinkets cluttered the racks, and towering bookcases made up the back wall. An elderly man seated behind the counter greeted her with a warm smile. "Hello." He said, his eyes twinkling, "Are you here to avoid the rain?"

The girl blushed. Clearly the shop did not get many customers. "I'll buy something, if you'd like." She offered, fingering a small dusty contraption on the table in front of her.

The elderly man chuckled, shaking his head. "That won't be necessary. But it may be awhile before the rain clears up, so, please, stay as long as you like."

"Really? Oh, thank you!" She brightened, stepping closer. Something about his smile made her trust him. "I'm Rukia. What's your name? I haven't seen you around the city before." In fact, the more she thought about it, she hadn't seen his shop around either.

"Ah, well, I'm old. I don't get out much." He laughed again, rearranging a display of small figurines on the counter. "But you may call me Mr. Otoko Kiseki."

Rukia nodded, a small object in the corner of the display catching her eye. A metal pendant with a simple leather cord sat next to a shelf of assorted cuckoo clocks. From far away, the necklace was decidedly unostentatious, but upon closer examination the girl was awed by the simple yet intricate designs stamped on one face of the metal plate. The plate was octagonal in shape, with a cool metallic feel and a reflective bronze glow. A creature that appeared to be a dolphin was pictured on one face. She wasn't sure what it was, but something about that image stirred a feeling within her. "Mr. Kiseki, uh, what is this?"

"This, my dear? Oh, just an old necklace I found at a flea market years ago. Beautiful metalworking, isn't it?" His eyes glimmered with something that Rukia could not quite make out, though she suspected it was more than just simple admiration for the handiwork. "Would you like to buy it?"

"Uh, sure, I guess." In the light of the candles, the necklace almost seemed to wink at her. "How much?"

The old man chuckled. "Consider it a gift."

"No, I couldn't - "

He held up a hand, stopping her. "Please."

The rain was beginning to clear up at this point, the clouds parting to reveal a brilliant setting sun. People were slowly lowering their umbrellas and twisting the water out of their drenched jackets. Rukia glanced towards the street, suddenly feeling the need to escape from the cramped shop.

The elderly man placed the necklace inside a brown paper bag and slid it across the counter. Then, he paused. "You know, I just had a thought." He ducked under his counter again, this time pulling out a white device. It was a strange shape, something between a rectangle and an oval. Most of its surface was dominated by a blank rectangular screen and two small buttons. The bottom half appeared to take on a silvery sheen. "When I received the pendant, this came with it. It's yours now."

"I-I can't possibly take this." She blurted, trembling slightly. The device almost felt at home in her hand, as if it belonged there. It sent a strange chill going up her body, and she pulled her jacket tighter around herself as if protecting herself from whatever strange secrets the device held.

"Good luck, Rukia Nami." He smiled kindly again, before disappearing into the back of his shop.

She stood still for a second, startled. How could he have known her surname? They had never met, as far as she knew. Although she was starting to question her thought processes – after all, they had beckoned for her to enter this questionable store. With one last glance around, she shook her head, shaking off the doubt and reentering the much more familiar atmosphere of the crowded city street.

* * *

"Crap…"

Taiji gritted his teeth, pedaling faster as the rain began to pick up. His treads were beginning to skid over puddles and his soccer uniform was practically dripping. Still, he was late and his coach didn't take excuses.

Life had become a rather dreary and monotonous routine, a cycle of school and soccer. Since his school career was practically nonexistent, soccer was all he had. And, the champion that he was, he was beginning to jeopardize that as well. He had been late to practice almost every day for the last month, and it was beginning to show in his performance. Everytime he missed a practice his coach would bench him, even if the cause of his absence was his mom's increasingly tight grip on her unruly teenage son. And with the recent disappearances, her grasp was squeezing tighter and tighter.

Over the last few weeks, the small city had been plagued with a series of seemingly related kidnappings. The first one occurred exactly a month ago – a teenage boy, the same age as Taiji, disappeared on his way home from school. After a thorough investigation produced no evidence, the police were forced to drop the investigation. Then, two weeks later, a girl disappeared in school during a bathroom break. The frequency of the disappearances increased as time went on, with a sister and brother disappearing back to back on the same day followed by another boy vanishing while on a stroll through the park. These let up to the most recent disappearance, a young girl who seemed to disappear straight out of her second-story bedroom window.

"… _when sixteen year old Rukia Nami disappeared without a trace in another case of what the authorities have dubbed the Triangle Kidnappings. Police are frantically searching the scene but are already convinced that it is a fruitless search…"_

From what Taiji could tell, the victims had no relation to one another. The only connection between the incidences was a symbol that always seemed to appear somewhere around the crime scene. The symbol followed the layout of a trefoil and bore a striking similarity to the symbol used for biohazards. It contained four triangles – three on the outer ring, each connected to one point of the fourth triangle in the center. A circle surrounded the center triangle. Over the last two weeks, this symbol had gained considerable notoriety in the community and had given rise to the name "the Triangle Kidnappings".

His family spent hours each night watching the news, anticipation mounting as more and more evidence was collected regarding each disappearance.

"… _her parents report speaking to her at approximately 5:50 pm, before she disappeared into her room to finish off her homework. Less than an hour later, at 6:30, they called her down to eat dinner, but received no reply…Getting worried, her mother ran up to her room, only to find her gone and her homework strewn around the room. The window was open, her computer had short-circuited, and the triangular symbol we've all come to know was flashing on her desktop screen. Here's her father now with…"_

Yet even with his mother's growing stringency, Taiji's life had still been plagued by small but strange occurrences. The day before, a package with no return address appeared on his doorstep, addressed to him only. It contained a small device, scarlet and white, with a rectangular screen and two buttons. He had never seen anything like it. Even stranger, wrapped around it was a leather cord attached to a bronze medallion. On one face, a shape resembling the outline of a dragon was branded into the medal. The medallion was cool to the touch and almost seemed to glow under the setting sun. Whatever they were, they were obviously very important, and apparently for his eyes only. He kept them in his backpack for the most part, never letting them leave his side. Even during practice he knew to keep them locked in a locker at all times.

Upon entering the locker room, now empty, he confronted the fact that he was late for the third time that week. _Coach is not going to be happy._ He grimaced at the thought. Kicking off his shoes, he pulled the device and medallion out of his backpack once again, watching the way they twinkled in the light. Something about holding them in his hands filled his heart with a warmth he couldn't describe. He wasn't a sad kid by any measure – quite the opposite. With a relatively affluent family and a large group of friends, he was the epitome of what every teenager wanted to be. Athletic, popular, and not bad-looking, he knew of many that wished to be in his position. Yet with all of the happiness present in his life, nothing could quite compare to the simple rush of joy he felt when he was holding that device. As if it belonged there. As if nothing else mattered.

Just as these thoughts began running through his head, a movement in the corner of the room caught his eye. The television screen, long since broken, began to crackle. The sound of static filled the room as the screen turned on for the first time in years.

"What in the…" He approached it, shielding his eyes as the screen began to glow brighter and brighter. He felt the device and the medallion heat up in his hands, and the room began to tremble. His grip on the objects tightened even as they reached burning temperatures. The shaking intensified, and soon he was struggling to keep his balance. As he watched, the four-triangle symbol began to formulate on the screen. He opened his mouth to scream, but before any sound could come out, the world began to fade…

* * *

 **There is the Prologue/Chapter One! This one is a little short in my opinion, but I really wanted to get everything started as best I could. I hope you enjoyed it, and please review and tell me what you thought!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello again! I am back with Chapter Two of this story! I hope you all enjoyed Chapter One, and will hopefully enjoy this chapter as well. However, over the last week I have had a bit of an epiphany. I had this story planned out until like the twentieth chapter, but then decided that I hated the plan and scrapped all of it. I have come up with a new idea/plot that I think will warrant better writing, but I don't want to have the plan too rigid so that I can kind of just let my writing go where it wants to go. I think this will be beneficial both to me as a writer and to you, the readers, as it will feel much more organic and creative. The changes in the plot will not come into play until a little bit later on, however, so I am still sticking to my original plan for now and will still keep things a bit vague for the first few chapters. Anyway, my point for telling you this is that updates may be more irregular than I originally planned. But in any case, I'm very excited to continue and I hope you are too!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Digimon or Digimon Frontier. All canon portions of the story belong to their respectful owners. I own none of the digimon mentioned, just my own characters and my own plot.**

* * *

 _Choo-choo. Choo-choo._

His eyes fluttered open, taking time to adjust to the dim light surrounding him. A row of chairs lined the wall directly opposite him, a wall made up of a series of glass-paneled windows. With a start, Taiji realized that he was situated alone on a train. He had no way out, and the train was travelling at speeds he couldn't comprehend. His destination was unknown, and he was powerless to do anything about it. All of his possessions were gone except for the strange device and the medallion which had been hung around his neck. Without food or water, his chances of survival seemed slim.

"Hello?" He called tentatively, taking weary steps towards the front of his compartment. Through the screen on the door, he stared at the reflection staring back at him. He was a boy of average height, with the athletic build of a runner. His messy brown hair stuck up in random places, and green eyes, usually full of life, stared dully back. He was the same person he had always been, even in this foreign situation. The idea comforted him, and he peered into the next compartment, only to find it empty as well. The entire train seemed to be abandoned apart from him. It wasn't until he realized that this train lacked a conductor as well that he began to panic. The train should not have been moving, much less travelling at breakneck speeds.

His mind raced with ideas of how to avoid the inevitably gruesome death that awaited him when the train rushed off its tracks. He had no idea where he was, and it was unlikely that anyone would ever find him. He wondered if that was the fate that befell all of the victims of the Triangle Kidnappings. If so, who could be behind the operation? Taiji struggled to remember exactly what had happened prior to his awakening on the train. The TV in the locker room turning on, and then…nothing. _Impossible._ He had to have gotten drugged or knocked out. No other explanations were plausible.

Eventually, the train began to slow. The windows opened up, revealing what seemed to be a train station fused with a factory. Soot stained the walls and flaming smokestacks rising thirty feet from the ground spewed smoke and fire. Thick metal pipes jutted out every which way from the hard metal walls. He had never seen anything so intimidating yet strangely fantastic in his life.

"We're here." A great booming voice sounded, causing the entire train to shake. The voice rumbled with a quiet intensity, and Taiji nearly soiled his pants in surprise.

"Wh-who was that?"

"Ah, my boy! It's me, Trailmon, the first of many digimon you will meet here in the Digital World! Though it may all seem confusing now, I promise it shall all be explained to you in due time. We are very happy to have you here, son. You serve a larger purpose than yourself."

With that, a great gust of wind pushed him off the train. He didn't even have time to respond before the train – the Trailmon – had pulled out of the station. He watched it leave, mouth agape, more confused than he had been when it all began.

The device in his hand began to beep, and he jumped, startled, and pulled it out. A holographic map appeared from within the device, displaying a shrunken 3D diagram of the surrounding area. A red dot and another white dot began to flash on the map, one of them positioned outside of a building and the other in an unknown location a few dozen miles away.

A woman's voice, regal but strong, began to speak. "Hello, Chosen Child of Flame. You have arrived safely in the Digital World. Now, the real adventure begins – but only if you are willing to play." A 'YES' and a 'NO' button appeared on the device screen. Those words piqued Taiji's interest, and shaking off his earlier doubts, he pressed 'YES'. "This is your D-tector. Follow the map on this device and travel to the Temple of the Gods. We will meet you there."

He waited for her to speak again, but was only met with silence. _D-tector._ He fiddled with the strange device, still unsure of its use, though it certainly helped to have a name for it. The map's use, however, seemed a little more obvious. He knew he had nowhere else to go, and figured that if travelling to this temple was the only way for him to get answers, there really appeared to be no other alternative. He had never been one to pass up a challenge, and he could not deny that these foreign phrases that the woman used – Chosen Child of Flame, Digital World – were causing him to become more and more curious. The idea of him no longer being on Earth was entirely possible, and he had no idea what kind of dangers lay in this strange land or what supernatural forces had conspired to get him here.

He continued to walk towards the white dot, the day growing longer and hotter. The setting sun beat down on him as the fatigue of the day's events began to set in. The desert in front of him seemed to stretch for miles and miles, and the dot didn't seem to be getting any closer. Eventually, he happened upon a small wooden bench. The bench was proof that there must be some sort of intelligent life in the area, yet all he had sign were small alien-like creatures, peering out at him wearily before scurrying away. He had never seen anything like them.

He laid down on the bench, telling himself that he would just take a short nap before going on his way once again. The sun would set, and the night would be cooler and much more bearable to walk around in. He closed his eyes, letting sleep take him.

* * *

 _A dark city rises above him, hundreds of stories in the air. Shadows dance on the walls, and the sounds of gears turning and pipes creaking fill the air in a chaotic symphony. He is alone, surrounded by no one and everyone. Strange faces seem to laugh at him from building windows, their bodies twisted and surreal. The stench of blood drifts through the air, enough to make him gag. He stumbles backwards, away from the shadows and the laughter and the blood, but the ground lurches beneath him, sending him sprawling to the ground. He raises his head, watching as the shadows grow in size, getting closer and closer to him. The temperature drops exponentially as it becomes deathly freezing, and he scrambles backwards, breath thin._

 _The laughter grows as the world around him becomes a cacophony of gears and cackling, all focused on the shadows that continue to advance. He cannot outrun them. In his last moments, he submits himself to the mercy of the shadows, allowing the will of the dark city to overtake him. They reach towards him and –_

* * *

Taiji gasped, waking with a start. He frantically glanced around him, seeing nothing but desert once again. He realized that he must have been asleep much longer than expected, for now the strange world was covered in an eerie darkness. The night was silent, as if in waiting. _It's okay. It was just a dream. But…what kind of dream was that?_

The city and the shadows were gone, but the air was still ominously cold. The more he thought about it, the more he realized how unnatural the temperature drop was. It was enough to make the hair on the back of his neck stand up. He shivered, unable to shake the feeling that something was watching him. From behind him, he heard something that sounded like a low growl, almost inaudible. Shaking, he slowly turned, his eyes meeting two glowing orbs blinking back at him.

"What the…" He stumbled back, eyeing the creature before him that looked like it had to have been dragged up from the depths of hell. It resembled a wolf, though larger than any Taiji had ever encountered. Its fur, though, glowed a blood-red color, and its haunches were wrapped in black metallic casing. Long purple claws extended from its feet, and a snout the length of a human arm protruded out, lined with enough teeth to grind skulls into powder in seconds.

Taiji's D-tector clattered to the ground beside him. Another hologram appeared out of the device, this time displaying a 3D model of a creature resembling the one in front of him.

"Fangmon. Level: Adult. Family: Metal Empire. A Demon Beast digimon of the forest."

"Fangmon? What does that mean? What are you?" He grabbed the device and stuffed it back in his pocket, continuing to slowly inch backwards away from the creature.

It snarled, drool beginning to drip from its open jaw. "Child of flame. We have been looking for you. You don't know what you're getting yourself into. Why don't you come with me?" It eyed Taiji with a wild hunger, taking slow steps toward him.

"Y-you can talk too?" This was definitely not just another wolf.

"Foolish human boy. So ignorant of this world! Let me take you out of your misery." The creature sprang, beginning to sprint towards him. Taiji's breath caught in his throat as he began to run as fast as he could, his survival instinct kicking in. He knew nothing of this land or its customs, only that he would not die at the hands of this savage creature.

Desert gave way to jungle as the chase made its way into a dense forest. Branches and vine tore at his flesh as he blindly raced through the brush. His heartbeat thundered in his ears and his breath grew ragged and thin. Behind him, he could hear Fangmon cackling as every step reduced the gap between them. "Blast coffin!" An explosion shook the forest as a ball of dark light flashed by on Taiji's right, inches away from his head. It hit a tree in his path and burned a hole through the tree in seconds. His mind was racing with shock and confusion and the fear that in moments, that could be him. What kind of creature was this? How could it possess these powers and how would he ever be able to stand up to it? As he dashed past the destroyed tree, it creaked and shook, eventually collapsing to the ground. He could hear Fangmon's steps behind him grind to a halt as it found itself blocked by the obstacle, and Taiji cheered silently at his little victory. The fallen tree bought him a few seconds, enough for him to regain a significant lead on the animal. He continued to run, stopping only when the land in front of him suddenly dropped away. He was staring into a deep chasm, several miles wide and stretching infinitely to his left and right. He could not see the bottom from where he was standing, only a vast pit of darkness. With no time to think and the sound of Fangmon getting closer and closer behind him, he decided that the only way over it was through it, and he began to climb. The jagged rock dug into his skin, drawing blood, and he gritted his teeth and continued on. Blood rushed in his ears as he struggled to find stable indentations in the side of the cliff to use as footholds. He lowered himself further into the pit, his foot finding a small rock on which to rest. As he leaned more weight onto the rock, it suddenly broke loose from the rest of the cliff, falling down into the abyss and taking Taij with it.

His body plummeted through the air like a rag doll, ultimately landing forcefully on a small ledge and rolling off the side. He scrambled to try and grip onto some part of the ledge, his hand catching a rock on the very edge. His grasp was beginning to fail him as he felt his fingers beginning to slip from around the rock, and he groaned in strain as he struggled to maintain his hold.

Suddenly, a hand reached out from on top of the ledge and clasped around his wrist. It began to pull him up, and he took the opportunity to swing up his other hand and push his body back onto the side of the ledge. He met eyes with a girl, around the same age as him, watching him with cloudy grey eyes. She was slim, with porcelain skin and a head of dark black hair. Her expression showed a mixture of exhaustion and shock, matching his feelings perfectly. She eyed him up and down and said, "We have a lot to talk about."

* * *

 **Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed it. As always, feel free to point out any grammatical/spelling errors as I'm sure there are many, and please feel free to critique me as constructive criticism is extremely welcome (and encouraged). Please review and tell me what you think!**


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